George Galloway came to speak at Oxford town hall on Friday 16th May at an event organised by Oxford University Students’ Stop the War. Reports had been circulating, both on local anti-war e-mail lists and in the local press, that Galloway had been banned from speaking by the council. These reports proved to be untrue, and the event went on as planned. Despite the confusion, around 130 people attended, including around 10 members of Oxford University Conservative Association who had apparently coordinated their “first ever protest” against Galloway with the Daily Telegraph. The Telegraph is responsible for making allegations that George Galloway had links with Saddam Hussein’s regime and that he received funds from the regime amounting to something in the region of $15million. The documents used as “proof” of Galloway’s involvement with the Ba’athist regime have since been checked by independent experts and deemed “crude forgeries”. Galloway has since launched legal proceedings against The Telegraph, on whose board of directors, he told the audience, sit Richard Perle, Margaret Thatcher and Henry Kissinger.
Galloway spoke initially about some of the other local difficulties he has had since becoming heavily involved with the anti-war movement. Most recently, he has been expelled from the Labour party over the allegations made by The Telegraph. Petitions circulated during the meeting demanding that he be re-instated. Galloway is also facing a private prosecution for treason launched by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who contested the view of the anti-war movement that the war was illegal. Treason, until 1998, was still a capital offence in this country, but since then it has carried a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Galloway informed the audience that this private prosecution is being financed by Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun newspaper.
After discussing some of the issues surrounding The Telegraph’s allegations against him, Galloway turned to the effects of the disastrous effects of the UN sanctions after the first Gulf war, the latest war itself, the anti-war movement, and the internal affairs of the Labour party. He said that our personal, economic and cultural freedoms have been “grievously compromised” by the war as the Foreign Office issues more and more warnings about the safety of travel to Arab countries. He ended on a more positive note by suggesting that Tony Blair’s time at the top of the Labour Party may soon draw to a close. “The cracks are already beginning to show” he said, adding that whilst he believes that Blair probably is sincere in his stated commitment to the Palestinian peace process, this sincerity will come to naught given that Blair has always been, and will continue to be, subordinated to the aims of George Bush: “Blair is finding out the limits of the powers of an ambassador. An ambassador is a man who goes abroad to lie for his country. Blair goes abroad to lie for someone else’s country. […] But the tail never wags the dog; the dog always wags the tail”, warned Galloway.
Finally, when I managed to catch up with Galloway after the event, he gave a message of support to Oxford’s fledgling IMC: “We desperately need more independent sources of media, and I hope that Oxford Indymedia, which is now but a sapling, will one day be a tall and impressive tree.”
Galloway spoke initially about some of the other local difficulties he has had since becoming heavily involved with the anti-war movement. Most recently, he has been expelled from the Labour party over the allegations made by The Telegraph. Petitions circulated during the meeting demanding that he be re-instated. Galloway is also facing a private prosecution for treason launched by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who contested the view of the anti-war movement that the war was illegal. Treason, until 1998, was still a capital offence in this country, but since then it has carried a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Galloway informed the audience that this private prosecution is being financed by Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun newspaper.
After discussing some of the issues surrounding The Telegraph’s allegations against him, Galloway turned to the effects of the disastrous effects of the UN sanctions after the first Gulf war, the latest war itself, the anti-war movement, and the internal affairs of the Labour party. He said that our personal, economic and cultural freedoms have been “grievously compromised” by the war as the Foreign Office issues more and more warnings about the safety of travel to Arab countries. He ended on a more positive note by suggesting that Tony Blair’s time at the top of the Labour Party may soon draw to a close. “The cracks are already beginning to show” he said, adding that whilst he believes that Blair probably is sincere in his stated commitment to the Palestinian peace process, this sincerity will come to naught given that Blair has always been, and will continue to be, subordinated to the aims of George Bush: “Blair is finding out the limits of the powers of an ambassador. An ambassador is a man who goes abroad to lie for his country. Blair goes abroad to lie for someone else’s country. […] But the tail never wags the dog; the dog always wags the tail”, warned Galloway.
Finally, when I managed to catch up with Galloway after the event, he gave a message of support to Oxford’s fledgling IMC: “We desperately need more independent sources of media, and I hope that Oxford Indymedia, which is now but a sapling, will one day be a tall and impressive tree.”
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excuse me, mate - errr
19.05.2003 11:44
Tony Blair is probably sincere about everything his "convictions" dictate to him but why does he have to put on all tha great big act of being sincere???
Surely, all sincerity and honesty would sell on their own without the boring drama???
Holy Poodle outdoes the Pope
THURS 29TH MAY
19.05.2003 13:13
other speakers will include eye witnesses from Palestine, and Tublu Murkurjee, a human rights and asylum lawyer.
this event is being organised By Brent Stop The War
www.redmagic.co.uk/stopwar/
un
Homepage:
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/redmagic/stopwar/Public%20meeting1.pdf
Video of Galloway Speaking in Manchester
19.05.2003 14:14
Dial-up modem version:
Also, a broadband clip of excerpts from the speeeches made by Loach and John Ree's at this meeting is posted at:
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A CD-Rom of good quality video clips of the speeches (in full) by Galloway, Ken loach and John Rees in Manchster is also available in by mail order from Richard at:
The clips on the CD-Rom are in realmedia format (playable in Realplayer). £1 each - 50p each for orders for more than 20 CDs.
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The Manchester Galloway meeting good excellent coverage in the local press....
"Ovation for Galloway
Iraq-storm MP promised help in legal battle
by Nicola Dowling
Manchester Evening News
10th May 2003
ANTI-WAR MP George Galloway was given a standing ovation by supporters who flocked to see him speak in Manchester city centre.
Many called for support to help raise funds for his legal battle against a national newspaper.
Others shouted their support from the audience and queued to shake his hand or hug him at the Friends Meeting House in Mount Street where he spoke alongside film director Ken Loach to supporters of the Stop the War Coalition.
More than 400 people packed the hall to hear the MP for Glasgow Kelvin who was suspended from the Labour Party after allegedly calling George Bush and Tony Blair "wolves".
Last night Mr Galloway remained defiant, saying he stood by his anti-war remarks.
He said he had started legal proceedings against the Daily Telegraph and a right- wing American newspaper which between them, he said, "had alleged that I have received £15 million dollars from Saddam Hussein, making me a multi, multi-millionaire. If you believe that, you will believe anything."
Speaking about a possible legal action by forces' families to prosecute him for treason, he said: "Who is behind the forces families, and paying for the private prosecution - The Sun newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch. If you can measure someone by their enemies, by God I am blessed!
"They can charge me with incitement to disaffection. I want these words chiselled on my gravestone, `He spent his life on incitement to disaffections against war'. I am proud to be accused of such by Robert Murdoch."
The outspoken MP said he stood by everything he said throughout the campaign against the war with Iraq.
"To the families of British soldiers who might be listening, we don't regard your children in the forces as criminals. I never called them wolves, I called them lions led by donkeys who were sent to lose and risk losing their lives."
Referring to reports which suggested he had often visited Iraq before the Gulf War, he said: "I have met Saddam Hussein twice, exactly the same number of times as Donald Rumsfeld. The difference is I met him last August to try to persuade him to let the weapons inspectors in so that they could destroy weapons. He visited him so that he could sell him weapons."
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Also from the Manchester Evening News 09/05/2003
Eggs hurled at MP Kaufman
EGGS were thrown at MP Gerald Kaufman as anti-war protesters demonstrated outside a restaurant where he and Peter Mandelson were attending a meeting.
The Gorton MP was targeted as he arrived at the Lal Qila restaurant, on Wilmslow Road in Rusholme, last night, for a meeting with the controversial former Northern Ireland secretary.
But while the Gorton MP had two eggs thrown at him and abuse screamed just inches from his face as he entered a side door, Mr Mandelson slipped in unnoticed through the front door.
The eggs that were thrown at Mr Kaufman missed him by inches as he walked from his car and across a road to the restaurant. Two of the dozen police officers on duty stepped in but the egg thrower fled after being pulled clear by the crowd.
Both MPs were there for the "Towards 2004 Dinner'', organised by Gorton Constituency Labour Party. Mr Kaufman was hosting the evening and Mr Mandelson was the special guest speaker.
Mr Kaufman said: "I wasn't concerned for my safety. And I'm a peaceful sort of chap so I wasn't going to do a John Prescott.
"If they had been doing that in Baghdad under Saddam they would have been arrested.''
Protester Andy Lyons, a student from Fallowfield, said: "Mandelson used to be the architect of much of what the Labour Party does and Gerald Kaufman has not raised any objections about the war. I wanted them to know that they've behaved disgracefully.''
Press Release May 11 2003
Witch-hunt falls apart
Already the witch-hunt against George Galloway MP is unravelling. A report in the Mail on Sunday, 11 May revealed that the newspaper has uncovered evidence that documents incriminating the MP are forgeries.
The Mail had paid £1500 for documents claiming to show that Galloway received millions of pounds from the Saddam regime. Now the paper admits that the documents it bought were crude forgeries 'littered with inaccuracies'. These documents have been used in reports by the Christian Science Monitor and given credibility in many other newspapers.
This revelation casts further doubt on the recent Telegraph story which claimed that George Galloway had received £375,000 over several years from the United Nations oil for food programme. That story was based on documents miraculously discovered in a burnt out building in Baghdad by Telegraph reporter David Blair. These documents, written in a crude literary style with an indecipherable signature at the bottom, formed the basis of a campaign by the Telegraph to smear the entire anti-war movement.
A spokesman for Stop the War said 'there are many in the Blair government who are desperate for these allegations against George Galloway to be true. They hope it will divert attention from the illegality of both the war and the current occupation of Iraq.'
George Galloway has been suspended from the Labour Party under rule 28a 'bringing the party into disrepute'. This suspension was carried out in a totally undemocratic manner. The National Executive Committee has not discussed the suspension and it appears to have been the act of David Triesman, the general secretary, alone.
Galloway's crime has been his principled opposition to the war on Iraq. The Stop the War Coalition calls for George Galloway's suspension from the Labour Party to be lifted immediately and for an independent inquiry into whether there has been collusion between British security services and others against the MP.
The Stop The War Coalition fully supports George Galloway against this vicious witch-hunt and we would strongly urge you to do the following:
Write/phone/fax David Triesman at the Labour Party demanding that Mr Galloway's suspension is lifted immediately. Details as follows:
David Triesman
The Labour Party
16 Old Queen Street
London SW1H 9HP
E-mail:
E-mail:
Tel: 08705 900200
Fax: 0207 802 1111
Send messages of support to Mr Galloway on
Petition - We now have in the office Defend George Galloway Petitions. Please use this at meetings, street stalls and workplaces.
Pass resolutions (model resolution available from the STW office) in your union branches.
Invite George Galloway to speak at public meetings and union meetings. (Please phone the office to book him).
The attack on George Galloway is a general attack on the biggest anti war movement that this country has ever seen and that is why it is vitally important that we to all that we can to defend him.
Further information contact:
Lindsey German 07810 540 584
Andrew Burgin 07939 242229
Dave
For Media Workers Against the War
www.mwaw.org
Chris Edwards
again
19.05.2003 15:05
George Galloway will be talking on Thurs 29th May at Willesden Green Library, 95 Willesden High Road, 7.30pm.
other speakers will include eye witnesses from Palestine, and Tublu Murkurjee, a human rights and asylum lawyer.
this event is being organised By Brent Stop The War
www.redmagic.co.uk/stopwar/
homepage.ntlworld.com/redmagic/stopwar/P...
un
background research
20.05.2003 10:10
The documents used as “proof” of Galloway’s involvement with the Ba’athist regime have since been checked by independent experts and deemed “crude forgeries”.andGalloway has since launched legal proceedings against The Telegraph, on whose board of directors, he told the audience, sit Richard Perle, Margaret Thatcher and Henry Kissinger.?
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